Government Business briefs

Department of Veterans Affairs secretary
Ian Campbell
will undergo surgery in May and retire in July. As announced by Prime Minister
Julia Gillard
, Defence’s associate secretary and chief operating officer
Simon Lewis
will act in the job from May 10 and start officially on July 1. He’s the first officially appointed by the Governor-General
Quentin Bryce
, under the amended Public Service Act. Lewis has a low profile but is seen patiently answering tortuous questions at Senate estimates about Defence’s departmental expenditure. He’llbe in the hot seat over vets’ entitlements as Afghanistan winds down.

Governments can struggle to get oxygen for good news so let’s remind you all that Finance Minister
Penny Wong
and Attorney-General
Mark Dreyfus
this week repealed 1000 regulations and other instruments in Dreyfus’s portfolio. The oldest dated back to 1967 when Harold Holt was PM and another, a marriage regulation, referred to unmarried women as spinsters and men as bachelors. And while 12,000 regulations would be repealed this year, the ministers didn’t say how many new ones had been created. We can think of a few.

More on potential conflicts of interest by the Attorney-General
Mark Dreyfus
who’s Special Minister of State, and Minister for Public Service and Integrity in the Prime Minister’s portfolio, and therefore responsible for the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS). The IGIS reviews the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s actions in seeking the issue of warrants that – other than for questioning and detention – are approved by the Attorney alone. If the IGIS later asked whether there were sufficient grounds for a warrant, and the Attorney had simply relied on what ASIO put to him, some might see him as just a rubber stamp. Awkward.

Do you really care?

We mentioned the 600 newly minted graduate trainees’ “Taste of Government" day at Parliament House in late March. Now the Public Service Commissioner,
Steve Sedgwick
, has posted his speech on the commission’s website. He took the opportunity to point out that, as of July 1, they’ll be working under the new streamlined set of public service values contained in the amended Public Service Act 1999. And yes, out came the new acronym, ICARE (which stands for the five “headline" values: independent, committed to service, accountable, respectful and ethical). Rote learning, anyone?